New Beginnings
by Downwind-Sailor
Summary: What if Kate had jumped off the helicopter too?
1. Chapter 1

I had to write an alternate ending to the finale because I will never admit that Sawyer and Kate aren't fate!!

* * *

Her eyes closed. _He jumped out_, she thought. It was so….selfless. So unlike him. She had a flash of her life ahead of her. Handcuffs, bars and never seeing his face again. She only hesitated for a split second.

"Take the baby," she said to Hurley. "Why?" he asked, gathering the sleeping bundle into his arms. She stood up and grabbed the doorframe, looking down. Damn it was far. She turned to Jack. "I'm sorry," she said, and she meant it.

He realized what she was going to do a moment too late. "He reached for her but she was already in the air. "Kate!" she heard him shout, and then all she heard was the wind whistling past her ears.

She hit the water with a dazing impact. She remained motionless underwater for a few seconds before clumsily kicking her way up to the surface. She looked up and saw Jack being restrained by Desmond and Sayid. He was trying to jump after her. She couldn't look anymore.

Sawyer was nowhere to be seen. By the time she had jumped out they were already 500 metres from where he'd landed. She sighed and began the long swim to shore.

* * *

Juliet saw a figure kicking it's way to shore. "Nice day for a swim," he said cheekily, hauling himself out of the water. "What are you doing here?" she asked listlessly. "Thought I'd take a dip. Whatcha celebrating?" he asked, noticing the rum bottle at her feet. "I'm not celebrating," she said. He turned to see where she was looking. A trail of grey smoke dirtied the blue sky.

_No._ He thought frantically. _It can't be-_ "That our boat?"

"It was."

Oh God. Oh God. He looked back at her, pain emanating from every inch of his body. She offered him a weak smile.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"She's gone?" he asked dazedly. There was no need to clarify who "she" was

"Maybe not." she said, because he looked so pitiful right there and then. "maybe they weren't there yet. Maybe they'll come back."

"They had no fuel." He said. She made a small noise and took another slug from the rum bottle.

His brain was working slowly. She couldn't de gone. Not his Kate, not his strong Kate. His Kate had rescued him from death and had slugged him in the face on more than one occasion. His Kate was strong. She was a fighter. It couldn't be true.

And yet the black smoke leering at him in the sky told him differently.

* * *

Kate arrived about a half a mile down the beach. She wasn't as strong a swimmer as Sawyer (Wayne had pissed away any money that could've been used for swimming lessons) and the current had taken her quite a ways down. She hauled herself out of the water.

Glancing back at the horizon, she noticed something that made her blood run cold. A trail of smoke was drifting up into the clouds right where the freighter had been. She put her hand over her eyes. She couldn't be seeing it right. She needed to find Sawyer.

However, she hadn't taken five steps when the sky went white. There was an earsplitting noise and the world took one massive shake. Every bone in her body rattled and she was sure the world was over.

And then it ended. She squinted, disoriented, bright lights popping in front of her eyes. She looked back at the horizon. The pillar of smoke was gone. What the hell had just happened?


	2. Chapter 2

Kate took every step with increasing difficulty. They were all gone. Sun Hurley. Sayid. Desmond. Frank. Aaron. Jack. At the thought of Jack, her hero, her knight in shining armour being blown to pieces, her knees buckled and she couldn't move another step.

* * *

"What the hell was that?" asked Sawyer. He jumped to his feet, ears still ringing. He turned his head slightly. "What the – where's the smoke? It's gone!" Juliet looked just as confused as he did. She too rose up, but she stared not out at the horizon but directly above them.

"The clouds are different." She said slowly.

"The whos are what now?"

"The clouds. They've changed. "She pointed upwards. "There was one just up there that looked like Patrick Swayze. I was watching it. It's gone. Clouds don't move that fast."

"Well, maybe it evaporated," he said. He couldn't bring himself to sit back down and stare out at the horizon, not now when his very last link to the woman he loved had disappeared. He couldn't stay standing on the very beach where so much had happened. He went into the jungle. He needed to get away.

* * *

By the time Kate dragged her aching feet and heavy heart to the campsite, the sun was setting. She was greeted by an onslaught of questions. _What had happened? What was that white light?_

She answered every one the same. "I don't know." There was only one person she wanted to see right now, and that was Sawyer. "Has anyone seen Sawyer?" she asked. No one had. Her heart skipped a beat. What if something had happened to him and he hadn't made it back to the beach. She noticed a lone figure a ways down the beach. As she got closer, she realized it was not Sawyer, but Juliet.

"Damnit," she said underneath his breath and turned to walk away.

Juliet saw her. "Kate?" she called. She got to her feet and came closer. "what happened?"

"I jumped out," she said with a small smile. It sounded so ridiculous. It _was _so ridiculous. What the hell was wrong with her?

Juliet hugged her awkwardly. "I'm glad to see you," she said, tears in her eyes. Kate was taken aback, but pleased. In a moment tears were streaming down both their cheeks and they embraced again, rocking on the spot, too grief stricken to speak.

"Have you seen Sawyer?" Kate asked finally. Juliet started. "Oh god. He thinks your dead. He's gone."

"Gone, what do you mean gone?" asked Kate, panic rising once again in her chest. She had jumped off a friggin' helicopter for that guy, and he wasn't even here to meet her?

"He went into the jungle," Juliet began. That was all Kate needed to know. She ran off.


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry it took me so long to update, I'm right smack dab in the middle of exams right now, but I'll do my best to keep updating.

* * *

Kate was walking through the jungle shouting his name. Over and over again. "Sawyer!" Where the hell was he? "Sawyer!" How far could he have gone? "Sawyer!"Where _would_ he have gone, for that matter? "Sawyer!" Finally, when it was officially nighttime and she could no longer see her feet below her, she gave up and turned to go back to the beach. Maybe he'd already come back.

* * *

He hadn't. He'd gone to the caves. He wasn't quite sure why. It wasn't like there were any fond memories of her from here that he wanted to sit and cry about. Maybe that was why he'd come. It was just a familiar place where he could spend some time away from everyone else, without having to think about her. He fell asleep dreaming of burning helicopters, her soft lips and clouds shaped like Patrick Swayze.

* * *

The next morning he still wasn't back. Juliet was kneeling on the ground, sorting the breakfast cereals. Kate approached her cautiously. "Hi," she said, hands in her pockets. Juliet read her expression. "He's not back yet?" Kate shook her head. "What if he did something stupid?" she asked in a low voice. Juliet looked at her for a moment with an unreadable expression, then stood up. "Let's go and make sure he didn't."

* * *

He heard people approaching through his sleep. Why couldn't they just leave him alone? Couldn't they see that he was grieving? "Get lost," he tried to yell, but sleep was controlling his voice. "He's here," he heard someone shout. "Go and get her, tell her he's hear." Who the hell was "her"? It better not be Juliet getting all nursemaid on him. He rubbed his eyes and got to his feet. No one was there. Had he imagined it? "Son of a bitch..." he muttered, and turned to one of the fresh water pools to splash his face.

Standing there, breathing like she'd just run a marathon, was someone he'd never thought he'd see again.

"Kate..."


End file.
